


Learning to Be Cared For

by AutumnBookworm



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftercare, Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorder, BDSM, Daddy Kink, Divorce, Divorced Hermione Granger & Ron Weasley, Dom/sub, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Not Epilogue Compliant, Post-War, Ron Weasley Bashing, Spanking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26419909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnBookworm/pseuds/AutumnBookworm
Summary: Hermione Granger spends her entire childhood and adult life caring for other people before herself. When an old acquaintance shows up she soon finds herself being more taken care of than ever imaginable.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Charlie Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 24
Kudos: 71





	1. The Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Everyone, welcome to chapter one of Learning to Be Cared For. This fic is one I have been thinking about writing for going on six months and am so happy to have finally put it into words and onto paper. This fic will start off fairly slow but will get explicit within a few chapters, so if that's not your thing thank you for checking it out, but you may want to find another fic. As always, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> Disclaimer: Characters and world are the property of JK Rowling and are not my own.

**October 2, 1998**

Five months.  
It had been five months since she had seen her best friend dead in the arms of their beloved half-giant friend.  
Five months since she thought she would be the next to be dead in someone’s arms.  
Five months and she still didn’t quite… know where she was going.  
Hermione Granger was sitting in the cluttered room she shared with Ginny at The Burrow. Alone in the room, staring at the aged ceiling, she wondered to herself when things would start to feel normal. In the last five months, she had been caring for everyone around her and trying to give them a sense of normalcy, but she was still working on her own. It had been two weeks since her 19th birthday and she still felt hopeless when she was alone. 

“No time like the present,” she mumbled to herself in the dim light peeking through the worn curtains of the odd-shaped window. As she looked out, she saw Harry and Ron flying outside in the chilly evening air. 

Hermione tried to gather her Gryffindor courage as she pushed herself off of the small cot she had spent the day in. Looking at the mirror next to the wardrobe she saw that her wild curls somehow managed to look as flustered as she felt inside. Quickly patting down her hair and hoping for the best, she strode out the door to attempt to string her life back together. 

**October 2, 1999**

Sitting at the second-hand table at the flat she now shared with Ron, Hermione thought about the last year. Shortly after her last birthday, she remembered the day she sat up and decided to turn it all around. Since that day a lot has changed. That very evening she sent in an application to the Ministry to get into reforming the Magical Education Department.  
She followed up that task by finally having the courage to ask Ron to have a conversation about where they sat. After the war had been difficult, especially after the Horcrux hunt where their friendship had been strained, not to mention the strain on any relationship that had started to bloom. However, amongst the Yule festivities of 1998, under the mistletoe, Ron had asked her to be his.  
A lot had happened, and in front of her were the finalizations of a bill to ensure that no other Hogwarts student would have the same experience that the so-famed Golden Trio had had. No Trolls, Dementors, or Pink Toads would be allowed to further interrupt any educational experiences if she had anything to say about it, and luckily fame had some perks. Aside from all of the articles being written about her, she did actually have sway at the ministry to get things done.  
With that final thought, she tapped her wand against the parchment of the bill to add her stamp of approval and sent it on its way with the toffee coloured owl that the ministry had provided her. 

“Ronald, it’s time for our reservation with Harry and Ginny,” she hollered to the bedroom as she rushed around to find shoes and kiss Crookshanks goodbye for the evening. 

**October 2, 2000**

Hermione stared at herself in the mirror attempting to quickly make herself look presentable. So much had been happening lately that she felt a little rushed and unready for a group gathering. Today was Ron and Hermione’s engagement party as he had popped the question two weeks ago on her birthday.  
Molly was thrilled that Ron had, according to her, “finally” asked Hermione to marry him. Wedding planning had been number one on Molly’s list since that day and that feels like all Hermione had done since. Flowers, cake, dresses, forms, it all seemed to be a little too much, but Molly was ecstatic to be able to plan another wedding, especially without a war going on. 

She sighed and studied herself in the mirror, “I can do this.”

She left the bathroom and went to join Ron by the floo, where they could depart on their way to the festivities for the afternoon. She quickly patted Crookshanks who in return nuzzled her hand and left to, presumably, find a warm spot for an afternoon kip. 

“Ready?” Asked her fiery-haired fiancé with a kiss to her cheek.

“Ready.” 

**October 2, 2001**

Hermione was rushing out the door to get to the ministry for her department switch interview. She had done a lot for the Department of Education in the last couple of years, and a lot of changes had been made, but she felt herself finding her desperation to help in another location these days.  
While researching rights regarding werewolf and veela children, she had stumbled onto recent incidents involving the mistreatment of magical creatures, and seemingly no one cared enough to protect these amazing creatures. While S.P.E.W. had been a nightmare, she felt that she could make a difference in the lives of magical creatures that actually needed help. After that bill that came out a couple of years ago ensuring proper treatment of house-elves, she felt she could focus on other pathways of mistreatment. She quickly walked to the bedroom to find her shoes and saw Ron still sprawled out on the bed, asleep. Shaking her head and walking closer to him, she shook his shoulder. 

“Ron, time to wake up, you’re running late for work.”  
“Love, you really have to get up for work”  
Louder this time, she called, “Ron, you’re going to be late if you don’t get up and out the door this instant.”

He jerked awake and sent her a glare. “I’m up, I’m up.” He mumbled back while shoving his face into a pillow. 

~

Her interview had gone great. She was set to switch departments November first and she found herself happily hurrying home to tell Ron the good news. On her way home she had grabbed Chinese take away and hoped that he would be alright with her not cooking tonight among the excitement of the new job.  
She walked in the door expecting to see him waiting for her to ask her how it had gone, but instead the lights in the entryway were off and all she found was a fluffy orange cat nuzzling her ankles. 

“Hi Crookshanks, do you know where Ron is?” She questioned with a little bit of disappointment. 

Crookshanks seemingly didn’t care about the question, or possibly who the question involved, and walked away towards his food bowl.  
Hermione made her way towards their sitting room where their muggle television had been set up and found Ron glaring at it as though something was wrong. 

“Hi love, I brought take away”

“…”

“Is something wrong?” She asked as she set down the Chinese food and sat down on the loveseat next to her husband.

A large sigh was heaved as he reached forward to inspect the contents of the paper bag she had set down. “I was late this morning and was reprimanded by the head of the DMLE for it. You could have at least tried to have gotten me up.”

“I did try, you said you were up. I’m sorry you were late though and got in trouble,” Hermione said apologetically. 

Heaving himself up from the couch, Ron grabbed the bag of food and left towards their bedroom. Interview and dinner together forgotten. 

**October 2, 2002**

“Hello, Crookshanks,” Hermione said as she gave him a quick scratch behind the ear as she came in the door. 

It had been another long day of many at the ministry, her work was fulfilling, but she never seemed to be as heard as she would like. She perpetually was trying to explain to her boss that all magical creatures had rights, not just the creatures that had a benefit to the wizarding community.  
Sighing at the thought of how the week had gone so far, she made her way to the washroom where she looked in the mirror. She saw bags under her eyes starting to form, and her hair was shoved up into its usual tight bun so as to keep her wild hair contained. While not looking her best, she felt that she looked alright enough and decided to go change out of her work clothes and into something for her date with Ron later this evening, hoping she would look attractive enough to provoke a response from him when they got home from dinner.  
While waiting for her husband of just over a year and a half to come home she decided to pick up their flat a bit. She found enough of Ron’s socks to last a lifetime of old S.P.E.W projects and found many little messes of his that she cleaned up as she usually does. She felt awfully like a housewife these days even though she had a full-time job just as he did. She felt like he was trying to groom her into being a mini-Molly, someone to cook dinner, clean, and pop out enough babies to fill up their small flat, even though they rarely did anything other than sleep in their bed. Merlin, he had even gotten her to clean without magic. With that thought, she started using her wand to levitate dishes where they needed to go into the cabinets.

Midway through that thought process, the door slammed open and she could hear papers and shoes being thrown around into the entryway that she had just picked up. 

With a sigh she called out, “Hi Love, how was work today?”

“Fine.” Ron responded gruffly.

“Are you ready for our dinner reservation tonight? I set you out clothes on the bed.”

“Do we have to go? I just want to watch the telly and eat at home. Speaking of which, can you cook something?” Ron responded sounding very exasperated at the mention of going out. 

Hermione tried to not be hurt that he didn’t want to go to dinner with her. Much less the birthday dinner that she had to talk him into reserving. She tried to fight back the tears that welled in her eyes, but as they fell past her attempts and a couple of tears streaked her cheeks, she was grateful that Ron had not entered the room and had gone straight to their living room. 

Wiping her cheeks and not wanting to start a fight, she responded quietly, “That’s fine, I guess, what would you like me to cook?”

~

Hermione had cooked Ron his favorite dinner that Molly had so carefully sent her the recipes for as soon as they moved in together. She had brought him his dinner and they ate in silence, only watching muggle shows on the telly. 

“Why did we have a reservation anyway?” Ron asked his wife, whilst never removing his eyes from the program lighting up the dim room.

“No reason.”

**October 2, 2003**

Hermione woke up in bed, alone, as it had been for around six months now.  
She remembered the day she had walked into her flat and heard strange noises coming from the bedroom she shared with him. She remembered the hallway having items of clothing strewn throughout, it was when she saw the lacy bra on the floor beside the door that she understood precisely what was happening. Peaking through the crack in the door she saw Lavender Brown in her bed, on top of her husband. Having a hard time finding the Gryffindor courage she once had, she turned and walked away, passing Crookshanks on her way to the door. Hermione scooped her companion up and grabbed her wallet, wand, and keys and walked to the nearest apparition point, holding in tears all the while.  
She had quickly apparated to near a muggle hotel she had stayed at while looking for her parents after the war. It was the only place she could think of to go as she didn’t have anyone other than Harry and Ron, and Hermione was afraid that Harry would take Ron’s side. She cast a disillusionment charm over Crookshanks and asked him to stay quiet on her shoulder while she got them a room for the night, or the next couple of nights as it so turned out.  
Six months ago, she had filed the paperwork for their divorce and last night she received word that it would be finalized today.  
Shaking her head, Hermione pulled herself from that thought and did what she always did. She quickly got ready, avoiding the mirror and what she might see in it. Then she gathered her things and settled Crookshanks in for the day with a kiss to the head and ran off to the apparition point. 

~ 

She threw herself into her work which most definitely, was not to avoid dealing with her problems. She was writing a bill in cooperation with the magical education department to further expand the education of students at Hogwarts about magical creatures and the treatment of such animal creatures. She had to go around her own boss as he had refused to approve it, saying, “Current education practices are fine as they are.” She had gone to her prior boss in the education department for approval and thus was able to work on this bill, and hopefully finalize it shortly. However, she did not know the current curriculum very well and decided rather than sending an owl to Professor Mcgon…Minerva, she corrected herself, she would apparate over and go talk to her and Hagrid in person.


	2. Catching Up On Sleep and Old Times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I can't express how appreciative I am of all of the support I have received so far on this fic. I've read every comment about a hundred times because I'm so excited about it, thank you to everyone for taking the time out of their day to read. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Disclaimer: Characters and world are the property of JK Rowling and are not my own.

Hermione grabbed her cardigan and wrapped it tightly around her as she left the ministry and walked to the nearest apparition point. It was a bit chilly out this afternoon and she was glad she had thought to dress warm, even with all the chaos going on in her mind. She found her thoughts wandering quite a bit on the walk, but the rare occasions she would pass a red-haired man in muggle London she had a chill wrack through her body.

“It was six months ago, there is no reason for you to still think of him,” Hermione internally chastised herself.

Yet, Hermione still found herself thinking about the relationship and what it could have been if she had only tried a little harder. She could’ve been happy staying at home and cooking and homemaking, she tried to convince herself. She had tried so _damn_ hard to make it work, but he was looking for something or someone she just couldn’t be.

The day she had walked in on Lavender in her bedroom had been the day she felt her walls start to crumble down. She had built them up high, so high, after the war had ended, but that one day she felt the bricks of her wall starting to fall. She had gone to the cheap hotel room and cried about everything she had worked so hard to put together, falling apart.

Shaking her head to push back the pervasive thoughts, she arrived at the apparition point and turned on her heel. Hermione arrived outside the gates of Hogwarts on this chilly afternoon and saw two aurors ahead of her protecting the gate as per a bill she wrote a couple of years ago to add protections to Hogwarts. She smiled slightly at the added security for the students and greeted them with a hello as she walked closer.

The auror to the left, a man she vaguely recognized as being a Ravenclaw a year or two younger than she asked, “Mrs. Weasley, what brings you up to Hogwarts this day?”

She froze. Mid-step she stopped and almost tripped over herself in the process. She hadn’t expected anyone to not have known about it, especially an auror working alongside her ex-husband.

She decided to just answer the question and move along as quickly as possible. She quietly responded, “Just looking into the curriculum and I need to speak with Headmistress McGonagall and Hagrid today to clarify some things for my work.”

“It seems today is the day to speak to Hagrid,” the right auror stated and opened the gate for her and gestured towards it. “Enjoy your afternoon, Ms. Granger.”

Head reeling from the conversation that just occurred, she didn’t even process the first half of what had just been said to her. She rushed up the walkway to the building as she heard whispered voices behind her talking about her divorce. After she heard Lavender’s name mentioned she cast a silencing charm over herself.

~

Arriving at the entryway to Minerva’s office she chuckled to herself as she remembered the password. “Meow-mix,” she quietly said with a small genuine smile to the Gargoyle outside the office.

Hermione made her way up the staircase and she felt the warmth of the room surrounding her as she came in. In the time since she started working at the ministry, she had formed a great bond with the headmistress and found herself often coming here for advice, professional or personal.

“Minerva, are you in?” Hermione called out.

Not hearing a response, she decided to take a break and wait for her mentor and friend to arrive. Grabbing a biscuit from the jar always on her desk, Hermione made her way over to the chair in front of the fireplace to wait for her.

~

After what couldn’t have been more than five minutes to Hermione, she felt her shoulder being shaken gently by a large hand.

She closed her eyes a little bit tighter when she heard a deep voice say, “Hermione? Are you awake?”

She surely must be dreaming. Why would a male voice be coming from the headmistress’s office? Hermione decided she was, in fact, dreaming and decided to just ignore the voice and the warm hand that had just left her shoulder.

“Hermione dear, you can’t sleep in my office all day, I’m afraid,” the voice of Minerva said.

Her eyes shot open to see Minerva in front of her, kindly smiling. “Looks like you might’ve fallen asleep, dear.”

“I’m so sorry, I needed to talk to you about the curriculum for magical creatures and must’ve dozed off while waiting!” Hermione quickly spluttered out the apology.

“No worries, I know you’ve had quite the week considering you canceled our Sunday tea. I was running late anyway as I got a little caught up in conversation about magical creature care, funny enough.” Her mentor replied.

The deep voice then chuckled and said, “That was my bad, I kept her for a while to catch up.”

Hermione then realized that the voice had not been a dream and looked over to the direction where the chuckle and voice had come from. She saw a dark auburn-haired man sitting there wearing a worn pair of muggle jeans and a muggle button up with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. She could vaguely tell that the man in front of her was Charlie Weasley, but she had not seen him since her… well for almost three years.

She tried to find her voice but was too anxious to say anything. If he had talked to Molly or _him_ at all recently, he surely must not think very well of her. She was only able to let out a small, “Oh.”

Charlie chuckled and gave her a smile, “Cat got your tongue? Minerva here could probably help with that.”

Hermione found herself cracking a smile and Minerva let out a jovial laugh at the reference to her Animagus form. The two newcomers sat down in the other chairs facing the fireplace and they all made small conversation for a few moments about how school was going so far this semester and how Hermione’s work was going.

Before they could talk about what Charlie had been up to though, he mentioned that he needed to go talk to Hagrid and offered to walk down to the hut with Hermione. She accepted the company to go visit Hagrid and wished a farewell to Minerva.

“Thank you for the chair to nap in and the conversation, when you have a moment could you owl me the current curriculum requirements, please?” She asked as she was leaving.

“Of course, my dear, have a good afternoon.”

As Charlie opened the door for Hermione to exit the office, she stumbled over the last step down and luckily, Charlie grabbed her hand to steady her. She felt his warm firm grasp around her hand, and for the second they were touching she felt secure. It felt like she had been protected for a moment.

Shaking her head at the silly notion, she let out a small, “Thank you.”

“No problem, it seems like you’re having a little bit of a rough day,” Charlie said as they made their way through the corridors.

“You could say that,” Hermione agreed. “What brings you back to Hogwarts? It’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen you,” she asked, quickly changing the subject but grimaced as she realized that she referenced that terrible and overwhelming wedding.

Charlie either didn’t notice her grimace or was at least polite enough to not mention it as he responded, “I started a magical animal rescue in Romania a few years ago and am considering starting one up in London. I wanted to get Hagrid’s opinion on the need for it and ran into Minerva on my way in.”

“I can help answer if there’s a need for it, yes, there is,” Hermione said. “That’s why I’m here as well. The treatment of magical creatures in London is still disgusting and I’m hoping by educating people better, that can change.”

“I didn’t realize our work was so similar, I thought you were working in the education department. Are they expanding to include magical creature rights?” He said as they made their way down the pathway towards the hut.

“I switched departments a couple of years ago actually and have been working pretty exclusively on magical creature’s rights. I found the need there and have been working for a solution since.”

“That sounds like the Hermione I know,” he said with a chuckle, “Always fixing the problems when no one else wants to.”

“Can’t argue that.”

With that note, they arrived outside of the hut and Charlie knocked on the door. After hearing a bellowing, “Come in,” he opened the door for Hermione and gestured for her to enter first.

As she entered, she told Hagrid hello and was enveloped in an extremely tight hug, after being released, Charlie was given a welcoming hug as well. Hagrid poured them cups of tea and ushered them to sit down at his small table that Hermione had done the same thing at with a different Weasley so many times before.

“Wha’ brings you kids ‘ere?” Hagrid asked both as he plopped down in the chair next to Hermione.

“I came to talk to you about a possible reserve I want to start up in London and ran into Hermione on my way to chat. She said she had something very similar to talk to you about,” Charlie responded.

“A reserve, that sounds perfec’! I’ve been tryin’ ter do what I can ‘round here, but there’s only so much space fer animals in here,” Hagrid excitedly replied. “Two of my favorite students, openin’ a reserve fer animals…” He trailed off eagerly.

“Oh, no, not like that,” quickly replied Hermione. “I’m just here to see your lesson plans and such, all much less exciting.”

“As much as I would love Hermione’s help, I’m sure she’s much too busy to have time to help me with my project,” Charlie quickly followed up Hermione’s statement by saying.

“Well, I can give yer the lesson plans Headmistress McGonagall made me wri’, Hermione,” he said while looking at her. “An’ I can help with th’ reserve anytime, Charlie.”

After many grateful statements of thank you for Hagrid’s help and another cup of tea, Charlie and Hermione made their way to the front gates of Hogwarts. Hermione sighed as they approached the same aurors that were standing post earlier and hoped that they wouldn’t say anything about the Weasley she was currently with.

They passed through the gates with no trouble, but once again as she was walking away she heard a snippet of the conversation behind her, “Poor Weasley, having to deal with his ex-sister in law,” the Ravenclaw auror said.

Charlie clearly stiffened when he heard that and looked like he was going to turn around and say something.

Before he could, Hermione put a hand on his upper arm and said, “Please don’t, I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

Seeming to understand her not wanting to cause a stir, Charlie gave a nod and continued walking down the path to the apparition point with his jaw clenched.

“Are you alright?” Hermione asked.

“I just hate how nosy people are here. It’s what I don’t miss about being back from Romania. Everyone is in everyone’s business and it’s rude. I’m sorry people are giving you shit about Ron,” Charlie replied while giving her an apologetic smile.

“No harm, no foul. It’s a muggle expression,” she responded with a small smile.

“I know, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with muggles over the last few years. Romania distances themselves a lot less than here.”

She was shocked, no one ever understood the muggle expressions she still carried from her childhood outside of the wizarding world. She responded with a shocked tone, “Really?”

“Seems I keep surprising you, Hermione, I wouldn’t mind continuing to do so another time if you’d like? Are you free tomorrow night? I know of a place in muggle London that has a live band on Friday nights, we could go and catch up more if that sounds good to you?”

She was surprised, to say the least, but the thought of not being home alone for another Friday night sounded fantastic, and she was genuinely curious to get to know this teasing and caring side of Charlie better.

“I’d love to, owl me the details?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for taking the time to read, any comments, kudos, or anything else are always appreciated.


End file.
